King: New chapter in record time~! This is a dangerous precedent to create, but I'm happy to do so. I hope you all enjoy the chapter.

/\

Moon fell out of her portal and floated using her Butterfly Form (for lack of a better word). When she did, she felt… different. Like the weight of the years she'd lived had fallen away. Choosing to ignore this for now, she flew up to check the area around her. The immediate area was an arid desert with multiple rock formations. A few trees dotted the landscape around her. Out in the distance, she saw large city similar to ones Star told her about with the tall buildings. Deciding this was the best place to start, Moon flew off toward the city. Nearing the area, she noticed the windows of many of the buildings were shattered. She saw the road was overly cracked and a few buildings were starting to break down. Everything told her this place was abandoned. Moon landed in the road and returned to her normal form. She started to walk through the city, looking around for anything important or possibly dangerous. She heard something off in the distance and moved closer while staying out of sight. She jumped up in one of the broken buildings and looked out toward the source of the sound.

She found a small group of people sitting around a fire just outside one of the crumbling buildings. She recognized a number of the figures, even at this distance. She recognized all of them as various knights and squires from Mewni. They, also, all wore a dark blue uniform with the Mewnian emblem emblazoned on their chests and upper arms. They seemed to be armed with weapons she only ever really heard of. They all had firearms of some form. As they walked around, she found one of the individuals, a red haired young girl, run out and shout something to the group. They all instantly stood and scrambled to get their weapons ready. Moon watched as they bunkered into position.

A cloud of dust could be seen on the horizon. A vehicle was approaching extremely quickly. Moon watched as one of the soldiers loaded a large tube of some kind and pointed it toward the car. The soldier fired a rocket off toward the car, exploding on impact. The armored vehicle crashed into the middle of the road and a few soldiers in green uniforms filed out and behind the vehicle. Each side was trying to shoot the other through their cover.

Moon frowned. She knew searching through a warzone would be almost impossible. She'd have to temporarily pick a side to maximize her chance to actually find the memory shard. As she watched the battle, she decided to take up the cause of the Mewni soldiers. She jumped out from her position and onto the street. Upon landing, she sent a magical shockwave through the ground and pushing the destroyed vehicle away and knocking all of the green-uniformed soldiers to the ground. The Mewni soldiers were in shock but were able to use the moment to capture the incapacitated enemy.

One of the soldiers, the red head that warned the others walked up toward Moon. "Not that we don't appreciate the help, but civilians aren't supposed to be out here." Moon read over the soldier's name tag, [Higgs].

"Well, Higgs, I'm here searching for something and…"

Moon was interrupted by a massive tremor, causing all of the soldiers to shake and attempt to stay standing. Before Moon could continue, another tremor, this one a bit weaker, shook the area. And another. And another. Almost like footsteps.

Higgs looked around after the first tremor. When the second hit, her eyes showed true horror that likes of which Moon could only say she'd ever seen once; during the war with Toffee's forces. Higgs ran over to the group and shouted for a radio. Everyone else had already made their way toward an underground metro tunnel. Moon didn't know what was going on. She chose to run with them, if only to try to get an idea of the situation. A situation she learned full well when a building collapsed in front of them, cutting them off from the tunnel.

Moon was forced to look upward in horror. A giant! An actual giant! Clad in steel grey and tan armor, it had one bright, glowing pink eye. In its hands was a firearm of its own. The horrifying aspect being that it was the size of a car! The barrel alone had to be around 120 millimeters wide. Its shoulders were adorned with a shield on one shoulder and a spiked pauldron. It looked down toward them and pointed its weapon at them. It seemed to speak to them, "DROP YOUR WEAPONS AND SURRENDER IMMEDIATELY!" It sounded mechanical, like through a megaphone or voice enhancement spell.

Moon watched as all the Mewnian soldiers slowly placed their guns on the ground and raised their hands upward. Moon could have fought back, but she didn't want to risk the situation either. If this really was a giant, she didn't want to take the chance. She raised her hands as well.

Soon after, the green uniformed soldiers stood and pushed all of the Mewni soldiers to their knees. However, they weren't sure what to do about Moon. The giant looked toward her and stared for a moment. "SET HER ASIDE FOR QUESTIONING."

The soldiers took Moon by her wrists and moved her to the side while the others were moved inside of the buildings. Moon watched as the giant lowered itself to a knee and its chest opened up. Inside was a young man in a red uniform, similar to the green uniforms, accented by a short black cape and a helmet obscuring his face. A cord lowered him down toward the ground level. Once grounded, he walked up toward Moon. He was around the same height as Moon. Strangely, Moon felt she recognized the young man. Something in the back of her mind, but she couldn't place it in that moment.

The young man walked passed her and kicked the back of her knees, forcing her to drop. Two of the green uniformed soldiers held her in place as he walked back in front of her. Moon chose to play along for the moment. It could be an excellent opportunity to gather some information. The young man bent down to look her in the eye, a power play of sorts. If he had to bend down to meet her eyes, it placed him as the party in charge more effectively than just looking straight ahead. He didn't say anything for a moment before finally speaking, "Tell me, why are you here?"

Moon froze a moment. His voice was too familiar. "Marco?"

The young man recoiled a moment before removing his helmet. He was, in fact, Marco Diaz. Even his nametag confirmed this reading, [Lt. M. Diaz]. He looked so much like the Marco from her reality. However, there was something different. His eyes held no care. His was a broken gaze; one she knew well from the mirror during the days after her 'darkest spell.' But, unlike Moon, there was no single moment in his eyes. He was not cracked, he was shattered. A break only caused by war. Moon wanted to recoil seeing this. It was something she thought impossible, seeing that gaze on Marco's face, but she was stuck for the moment.

In her moment of shock, Marco grabbed her jaw and turned her head slightly to the side. He stared at her cheek marks for a moment before releasing her and nodding to the soldiers. After a moment, they let go and allowed her to stand again. Marco glared toward her as she did as he spoke, "What brings a royal to the front lines?" There was genuine distain in his voice.

Moon was taken aback. "I…"

Marco stared her down, "I thought the Mewmans didn't have a princess…"

"What?" Moon froze for a moment. Princess? Wait… Aren't I taller than Marco? She looked over to the side for a second in this thought and something caught her eye. She did a double take toward a shattered window. The large section of glass remaining had enough of its sheen to allow her to see her reflection. She was a teenager again! She looked exactly like she had when she faced Toffee. "How the…"

Marco raised an eyebrow before following her gaze. He turned back to her, "What's wrong? You're acting like you've seen a ghost."

Moon nodded, "Something like that." She turned back to Marco. "So, what now?"

"Now… The soldiers will be moved to a nearby military prison. You, however… I don't know. You're not a uniformed soldier, but I get the feeling your also not the princess. But the way you carry yourself shows a level of regality you don't see in the army or civilian populations. Who are you?"

Moon decided that now was as good a time as any to speak up. "I am Moon Butterfly. Queen of a Mewni from another reality."

No one spoke after this. No one really sure how to take what they had heard. After a few minutes of motionless silence, one of Marco's soldiers walked up next to him, "Sir… She's clearly disturbed. It would be best to move on and…"

Marco raised his hand to silence the soldier. "When we arrived, I saw a creature jump down from one of the buildings. A blue-skinned humanoid with six arms and butterfly wings. When it hit the ground, your cover was destroyed. A moment later, the creature was gone, and she was in its place." Marco turned back to Moon, "That creature was you, I take it."

Moon shifted into her Butterfly form and stood up as her wings knocked the soldiers holding her down away. She stood silent for a few minutes before returning to her normal form. "Does that answer your question?"

The soldiers around him looked to her like she was a demon. Both groups, Mewnian and the soldiers with Marco, all stepped away from her. A few fell over in the process. The only one that didn't step away was Marco. "From another reality, was it?"

Moon nodded.

Marco mimicked her motion and sighed. "Alright." Marco turned to one of soldiers, "Take the prisoners to the nearby campsite."

"Sir?"

"You'll move undeterred without a giant mobile suit looming above you. Use the bush to avoid conflict if possible. Once you arrive, get them a meal and blankets. Winter is approaching faster than we'd prefer."

"But sir…"

"No buts. You have your orders and the chain of command falls on Ensign Thomas. I'll join you as soon as I can. Understood?"

The soldier took a moment and had to take a deep breath. "Yes, sir!" The soldiers convened and started to march the prisoners off and away from the city.

Marco turned to Moon, "Now… Queen Moon, why are you here?"

Moon watched as the soldiers walked off as she spoke, "I'm seeking something called a memory shard. A broken item that will always be out of place here."

Marco took a moment of thought, "I can't say I've heard anything about…"

Marco was cut off when the radio at his side went off. "Lightning One calling Iron Kraken! Iron Kraken come in!"

Marco picked up the receiver, "This is Iron Kraken! Lighting, what's going on?"

"A Mewman behemoth is in the area!"

Marco's tone turned panicked, "What?!"

"It's been sighted fifteen miles west of your last position! You've been ordered to move to intercept!"

"Understood! Iron Kraken moving to intercept!" Marco hung up the radio and started to run toward the mech. On the way, he turned back to Moon, "We'll have to settle this later!"

Moon took a moment but started to run next to him.

They arrived at the mech at the same time, "What are you doing?"

"The sooner you deal with this, the sooner you help me, right?"

"Yes."

"Well, that being the case, I'll help you and you'll return the favor with the memory shard."

Marco debated this for a moment. "I can't, in good conscience, condone you following me into this fight. I can't stop you if you really are a Queen, but I can't condone it, either. Whatever you do from here, we aren't affiliated."

Moon knew how these things went. He was required to tell her he couldn't accept her help, while not saying not to help. This left her open to do as she wished in the situation. Moon smirked at this. "Alright then." She shifted into her Butterfly form.

Before she could take off, Marco grabbed one of her arms and held her back, "Let me make this clear, if you follow and decide to fight, I will act accordingly. I'm going in to fight a Mewman force. As a Queen of Mewni, albeit a Mewni from another reality, I'll go forward expecting you to attack me for this. If that happens I will do everything in my power to survive, even if it means going through you. Understand?"

Moon took in what he had just said. She couldn't fault his logic. She was from Mewni, even though it's a different Mewni, and there was the danger to someone fighting Mewni that she would fight back. But she wasn't about to turn on Marco just yet. From what she's seen, he's an honorable soldier in this reality. No reason to attack him, right? Moon nodded.

Marco released her and grabbed a handle attached to the cable. He practically flew up to the open chest of the mech and jumped inside. When the hatch closed, the glowing pink appeared again and raised itself up from its knee. "STAY CLOSE AND DON'T WANDER OFF." As they approached a tall hill, Marco's mech stopped and the hatch opened. He stepped outside and stretched his back.

Moon flew back, confused, "I thought we were in a hurry."

"We are. The behemoth, apparently, isn't. It's heading this way as we speak. Unless it deviates from that path, we can wait here for it."

Moon looked out toward the horizon where the beast would supposedly arrive. She nodded and sat down on the edge of the opened hatch, reverting to her normal form. The two sat in silence for a few minutes before Moon felt compelled to speak. Back home, she wouldn't have necessarily bothered to pass time like this. Maybe it was because she was 15 again, maybe because the person next to her was a family friend, or perhaps a combination of the two… Whatever it was, she didn't care for the silence. "Can I ask you a question?"

"As long as it's not about sensitive information, sure."

Moon sat back a bit and leaned on her arms. "How did this war start?"

Marco sighed and nodded, "The Mewman Queen Meteora. In a mass power grab, she tried to take over as many dimensions as she could without losing the Magic High Commission's blessings. She tried to take over what she called 'backwater dimensions' but got a fight on Earth. It's been going on long enough that we humans had to build these." Marco knocked on the mech's hull. She's a bit out of date now, but she's treated me alright so far."

"She?"

"Right. You're from Mewni. There's this odd tick in humanity that large transports like ships, planes, cars, mechs, and so-on are usually addressed as 'she.' I never understood why, personally. Then again, I also don't really care. But, I was explaining how the war started. Meteora wanted to use a war to get her citizens to overlook her ineptitude as a ruler."

"That's… a bit more detailed than I expected of Mewni's motivation."

"Part of why we're here right now instead of under Meteora's boot heel. Mewman resistance forces popped up because of her actions as a queen. When Meteora invaded Earth, the resistance groups followed her through. Human spies joined the groups and the Mewman resistances became a cohesive unit allied with us earthlings."

Moon nodded. "Mind if I ask another question?"

"Go nuts. We appear to have time."

"How did humans create… this?" She gestured toward the mech, "I've been to Earth in my reality and things like this just don't exist."

"Interdimensional war with a race of magical beings will do that…"

"What do you mean?"

Marco took a deep breath, "It's something humans are just good at. 'It is a fundamental, undeniable quality of mankind; that when faced with extinction, every alternative is preferable.' Layman's terms, humanity's greatest feats are often born from conflict as a way to survive."

Moon stared, wide eyed. It was crazy to think that Marco would say something like that. "I… I don't…" Moon sighed and nodded, deciding to accept the description he gave. "Okay, last question…"

Marco looked out over the area, "No sign of the behemoth yet. So, go ahead."

"Right… I wanted to ask why you joined the war, then. You seem a little young to be a soldier."

"I am. Just 15, actually. I lied my way through the recruitment and pushed my way through training. By the time the military found out, I was an invaluable asset in the mechanized program with a Soldado." Marco tapped the mech with his knuckle again.

"Is that the name of the mech?"

"Yes and no. Technically, this is a Soldado model heavy armor mech. I, personally, call her Plata."

"Plata?"

"It means Silver. If I could get her a good cleaning, this baby would sparkle like a silver star. Plata is a beautiful mech, but time has played its course. She's tarnished… but she's still my Plata." Marco put the notepad away and stood up, tapping her shoulder. "Show time." Marco pointed to the tree line below them to show a massive, 100-foot creature walking on all fours. It looked like a giant lizard covered in steel-plate armor. It's sickly yellow-green scales made the beast look familiar to Moon, like one of the soldiers under Toffee. Rast-something… She couldn't remember his name. When the beast stood up on its hind legs and roared, it really reminded her of one of Toffee's old soldier.

Once Moon was clear and flying in Butterfly mode again, Marco jumped back into the mech and closed the hatch. The eye began to glow again and moved into a combat stance. "READY?"

Moon smirked and created a small ball of magic. "Oh yeah!" Being 15 again was definitely getting to her head. She was her old self again, her old happy-go-lucky persona returning to the surface after all these years. As if the name Toffee never existed!

As the behemoth charged, Marco's mech sprung to life and jumped down onto the field in front of the beast. Marco pointed the mech's gun at the lizard and started to unleash a fury of car-sized bullets toward the beast. The damage was minimal, but he expected as much. As he fired, Moon flew to the side and used a magical burst to put the lizard off balanced and force it onto its side, hoping to reveal a weakness in the armor. Unfortunately, none existed. The armor covered the beast completely and no one location was allowed a weakness. Moon cursed to herself and flew over toward the mech, which was still firing at the lizard to keep it pinned.

Moon floated next to the mech's head, "No weaknesses in the armor!"

"CAN YOU BREAK THE ARMOR FROM THE INSIDE WITH MAGIC?"

"Not likely! It's Mewman based, anti-magic armor."

"LOVELY…" Marco ran out of bullets in the magazine and went to reload when the lizard jumped up and bit at Marco's gun. The mech lurched back and the gun was ripped from its hands. "DAMN IT!" Marco drew a single-bladed battle ax. The end of the blade began to glow.

Moon used her magic to try to distract the creature, knowing she couldn't really damage the creature as long as it was wearing that armor. She could, however, push the beast around and cause it no small amount of annoyance. As she did, Marco's mech would be nearby to strike the behemoth with its ax. The armor was starting to show damage. A few more good hits and they could probably break the armor. The beast seemed to prefer that not happen. After a heavy hit from Moon, it jumped off the ground and bit into the mech's right arm, the one holding the ax. The behemoth bit down with enough power to destroy the arm's infrastructure and rip it off at the elbow.

"Marco!" Moon flew over to the beast and attacked its face, trying to get it to back off.

The lizard ignored her and continued its attack on the mech. It broke one of the legs with its tail and tried to tear into the mech's chest with its claws. The glowing eye began to flicker as the mech began to rip apart. The chest broke open and a pod flew outward, passed Moon. The behemoth didn't seem to care about the pod and continued to tear the mech apart. Moon, however, did care and flew off to the pod.

When she arrived, a bloodied Marco rose up from the pod and looked on as the behemoth ripped Plata to shreds. He fell onto his knees and watched in horror. Moon had to shake him back to his senses before he could speak, "Damn it… DAMN IT!"

"I get the mech was important, but doesn't this seem a bit much?"

"A bit much?!" Marco's tone made Moon recoil, "That was the only mech we had! The only lifeline the region had to fight these damn behemoths!"

"It's a war!" Moon picked up his shouting tone, the situation making them both rather tense, "That thing's a weapon! Weapons can be replaced!"

"Not when every weapon is marching their way to the capital!" Marco punched the pod, causing him to flinch at the pain of slamming his fist into a metal casing. Marco took a deep breath, "Next week, the Earth and Mewni resistance force will march on the Mewman capital. Plata was out of date, so they let us keep her. But that's it! I'm the only pilot with the only mech! And Plata is being torn apart as we speak! I'd say this is an appropriate reaction to the realization that everyone here is going TO DIE!"

Moon was shocked by two things in that moment. The first was Marco's outburst. The second, was that she slapped him when he was done. She didn't take a second to think about the situation, she simply spoke from her heart in that moment, "Then change it! Humans built those machines to fight magic! You fought back against the army of Mewni and survived this long! You lied your way into the army and fought this long, didn't you?! Why should this be able to stop you?!"

"There's a difference between lying to cheat a system and fighting a behemoth with weapons that won't work! Not to mention the fact that we have no way to get ahold of command to warn them!" He shook his broken radio in her face and tried to storm off, only for one of his legs to fail him. A piece of shrapnel had buried itself in his leg; and with the adrenaline high ending, the pain was starting to make itself known. "Great… Just great…"

Moon walked over to him and propped him up with his arm over her shoulder, "Where's your base?"

"What?"

"Where is your base?"

"50 miles south-southwest. But how does…?"

Moon took out a pair of scissors and cut the air in front of them, creating a portal.

"The hell?"

Moon walked them both through the vortex, dropping them off in the base.

"The hell?!"

Moon ignored him, "MEDIC!"

One of the soldiers in a green uniform with a bright red cross ran over and took Marco from Moon.

For the next half hour, Moon sat just outside the base camp thinking to herself. She wanted to help these people fight the monster approaching them, but she also had her own mission to complete. This was taking her out of her way more than she would have liked. She's a queen and only had so long to stay here. She loved River and trusted him to rule in her stead, but she still preferred to be nearby in case something goes wrong. Not in another reality for who knows how long! Moon considered flying off to complete her mission in order to return to her family when she felt a cold sensation on her cheek.

As she jumped, she spun to find an extremely familiar face. A happy blonde girl, likely around 15-16, with a face Moon knew very well. This reality's version of Star chuckled at Moon's reaction. "Sorry, I've been trying to get your attention for a while now." She held out a can toward Moon. "It's an Earth beverage called soda. We don't have much in the way of water to spare out here just yet."

Moon took the can and looked down, uncertain about how to open the can. After Star showed her how, Moon opened the can of soda with a metallic pop. She took a sip and nodded. "Not bad…"

"Right? I like it anyway. Most Mewmans like it because it's something different than rationed corn 24/7. Not even enough to make the corn into anything different…" Star sighed, "But that's about to end one way or the other at this point."

"That's rather morbid, don't you think?"

"A little." Star drank her soda until it was emptied. Star sighed with satisfaction and nodded lightly, "I also wanted to thank you for bringing Marco back."

Moon turned to Star, "Don't worry about it."

"Still will." After a while in silence, she continued, "Marco means a lot to everyone here. He's the reason most of us are alive. For some, he helped them escape Meteora's command and see their families again."

There was something in her tone that kicked Moon's parental instincts into gear. "He means a lot to you in particular, doesn't he?"

Star nodded, "Pretty much."

This caught Moon off guard. She expected a stuttered response with a denial.

"He means more to Mewmans than Earthlings. To Earthlings, he's a renowned pilot and a leader to look up to despite his age. To Mewmans… it's a little different. When the war started, Meteora tried to get everyone to believe humans showed no mercy. That if we surrendered, we'd be killed on sight. Someone decided this was a better option than living under Meteora and threw up his hands. But no guns fired. He and his unit were taken away, seeing how things were on the other side. They learned the reason no one captured returned was because they joined the humans. Marco picked up the fight and followed suit."

Star took a deep breath and smiled, "He was always kind to everyone, no matter what side they were on. This nobility and kindness resonated with Mewmans and we started to see him a little different. He was like a knight in shining, silver armor." Star chuckled, "Granted that armor was the size of a building, but it still worked."

Moon smiled. The Marco she knew could certainly be a knight with training. And his need to help shined at times, especially when she learned about the revolution he led at St. Olgas. Her smile faded, remembering recent events. "Yeah… About that armor…"

Star nodded somberly, "I know. We all know. Plata didn't come back, so we're more than well aware she's gone… Nothing for it."

Moon turned to Star with an incredulous look, "Um… Why are you so okay with this? Marco said this behemoth will probably kill everyone."

Star smiled, "That's a surprise for later."

Sensing that conversation had ended, Moon finished her drink and looked off into the world around her. In this state, she noticed something she hadn't before, "Mind if I ask why some of your uniforms are green and others are red?"

Star was dressed in a red uniform, sans the short cloak Marco had accenting his own version. "The green uniforms are for rank and file soldiers and medical staff. The red uniforms are used by the officers. The extra accents show how high in the chain you are. I'm the lowest rank of red officer and Marco is two ranks higher thanks to being an influential pilot. Helps bring in more Mewman rebels when a well-known, knight/officer is on the front lines while the Mewman command, which starts and ends with Meteora, stays behind the safety of the castle walls ignoring their plights." Star spun to turn to Moon, "Now, I have a question for you."

Moon raised an eyebrow, "Okay?"

"Don't worry about it, I just want to make sure there's no… ulterior motives to saving Marco."

Her implication made a shiver run up Moon's spine. "Absolutely not!" Her tone made Star chuckle, but also made it clear to all who heard.

"Nice kick to moral, you know that?" Marco had walked up behind them.

Star turned and placed her hands on her hips, "You know you shouldn't be walking around right now, right? You got a piece of metal lodged in your leg removed. You should be resting."

"We can rest later. Right now, we need to gather in the center of camp."

"Why? What's going on?"

"Figure out how to kill the giant monster coming to slaughter us."

"Good reason." Star motioned for Moon to follow and the three met the rest of the soldiers in the camp. Included in these numbers were the Mewman soldiers from the ruined city, now in green uniforms.

Marco took a deep breath. "An armored behemoth is headed this way. I don't know how long it will take to arrive. For now, we need to think… of…" Everyone around them seemed hopeful as they look toward Marco. Many were smiling seeing the honorary human knight. Marco was just confused, "What's going on?"

Star chuckled, "The surprise." She gestured to some of the soldiers on the end of the group, who ran to the side.

"Star, what's going on?"

She just smiled to Marco.

Moon, however, could feel something approaching. A magic presence. Not a person, but magical all the same.

The group from before used an apparatus to pull a massive item under a burgundy tarp. They started to remove the tarp and showed the mech beneath it. It was a sleek armor, extremely reminiscent of a knight's.

Marco looked to the mech, "Star… what's going on?"

"We have a mech to fight with~"

"And why do we have that?!"

"Because it's not human, for one. At least… half not human." She smiled as she spoke, "It's a new mech we've been building here on Mewni since we allied with Earth against Meteora. Part human, part mewman. Using technology and magic. Finally finished the work and she's ready to fly."

Marco took a moment to himself to think, nodding after a while. "Okay… we might be able to do this…"

"What's this 'might' part?" Star smiled. "We've all got this, but we need the knight on the front line."

Marco shook his head. "No, you don't."

"What?"

Marco turned to all of the soldiers, walking over to a set of boxes and starting to climb them.

Star watched on and nudged Moon's side, "This is going to be fun."

Marco looked out over the soldiers. "Many of you are expecting a speech to spur you all on. But you don't need one. You're all here to save your families from a tyrant's rule, either to keep her at bay or to free your families from her reign. You don't need a speech to spur you on. I can see it in your eyes! You're not afraid of that behemoth heading this way. You all want to fight to kill that beast and return home! A single mech isn't going to change anything. But this mech isn't a single mech." Everyone was confused for a moment before he clarified, "This is the culmination of your hopes. Both humans and mewmans created this! This is the hope we all share! A hope for freedom and peace! I'm not going to ask you all to fight in this battle. Because you'll fight even if I ordered you to leave!" The crowd cheered as he continued, "But I do have an order for you all. Live! Live for the future! If you only wanted to survive, you could have stayed home and lived under Meteora! But you all chose to live! Now… let's make sure we live."

\/

After two hours, the behemoth was seen over the horizon. Marco was waiting in the new mech. Moon floated in her Butterfly form to the side and the rest of the soldiers were nearby. Their magic and weapons wouldn't be able to damage the armored behemoth, but they refused to back down. Star was standing with a large launcher next to her, waiting for the beast to approach.

The armored behemoth saw Marco's new armor and stood back up on its hind legs, as if to challenge the new face. Marco glared and went to draw a sword given to his mech. When he pulled the handle, he saw no blade. "STAR…"

Star shouted up to him, "SMALL BUTTON ON THE HANDLE!"

Marco pressed the button and a blade of magic energy surged out from the handle. Marco whistled to himself and smiled. It was time to kill a behemoth. Marco leaned the mech forward a bit and thrusters on the back boosted it forward.

As he charged, Moon and soldiers let loose with their own attacks. Star fired a rocket straight for the beast's head. The concussive blast forced the beast to stagger, allowing Moon to slam a magic blast to force it to remain off balance. This allowed Marco to strike at the beast with the magic sword. The armor super-heated and it melted a bit like a slash mark. The beast roared and was beyond angry. It tried to charge Marco but was kept off guard by the soldiers and flying magical queen. Marco attacked as the soldiers kept the lizard from attacking back. Each slash made the armor weaker. Slowly but surely, the attacks from all sides were dealing more and more damage to the beast. One attack ripped through the armor, giving Star a shot at the lizard's flesh with the rocket. This angered the beast enough to ignore Marco for a moment to charge toward her.

Marco grabbed the remaining armor and pulled the beast back from its charge, forcing it to the ground. In a swift movement, Marco buried the magical blade into the beast's chest armor, heating it further. The smell of burning lizard wafted over the area as the armor cooked it. The behemoth pushed Marco off, but the blade remained. Moon flew over and charged a magical burst. Unleashing the magical energy, she forced the blade clean through the lizard's body. The behemoth twitched and convulsed until its body finally fell limp. The crowd of soldiers cheered out at the dying behemoth, able to live another day.

Moon watched as the lizard burned away, a small shimmer catching her eye. She used her magic to push the button on the blade to retract the magic. Sitting on the burnt ground was a small, fractured gemstone. It glowed a brilliant sky blue and felt familiar to her. It reminded her of home.

She flew over to the swarming crowd of soldiers as Marco exited from the mech. They all celebrated their success and survival. It was a push back against Meteora, proving they were going to live. That they would never bow to her.

Moon watched on and smiled. She turned and took a deep breath. She knew it was time to leave. A hand on her shoulder stopped her. She turned around to find Star and Marco.

Star smiled sadly, "Not even going to say goodbye? What kind of inter-reality mother are you?"

Moon jumped a bit in shock. "I… You… How…?"
Star laughed at Moon's reaction. "You look a lot like my mother when she was younger. Marco filled in the rest of the information."

Moon smiled and nodded. "Of course…" She took a deep breath, "I'm sorry. I need to return home."

"Don't worry about it." Marco waved her off. "We all fought to return home. You're just going home faster than the rest of us." He chuckled, "We wanted your take on something before you leave. If you don't mind."

"Sure."

Star smiled. "We still have to name the new mech. I wanted to name it something cooler than Plata!"

Marco turned to Star, "I happened to like Plata!"

"I know you did, but now you can do something better."

"You're the one that called me a knight. I'd think a mech like silver armor would fit that idea."

Moon placed her arms between them and pushed them slightly apart, "Get to the point please…"

Marco nodded, "I had an idea and wanted to run it by you both first. I think the type of mech is clearly superior to the old Soldado. I was thinking of calling it a Reina."

"What's that mean?"

"It means Queen."

Moon couldn't help but laugh at that. "Really?"

"Yep."

Star folded her arms, "I still think we could do better?"

"Can we?" Marco smirked. "Think about it. Our enemy is Queen Meteora, right? Well, why not push back with a queen of our own?"

Moon finally stopped chuckling and sighed. "I like it."

Marco smiled. "I'm thinking… for a full name." He feigned a moment of thought before wrapping his arms around both of them, "Reina Luna."

Star raised an eyebrow, "Queen Moon?"

Moon looked between Marco and Star, "You…"

Marco just smiled.

Star came to the realization at hand, "Wait… she's… then…"

Marco burst out into laughter and released the two.

\/

After a small celebration and a christening of a new mech, Moon returned to the portal area and looked at the gem in hand. She couldn't help but smile. She looked into the portal and took a deep breath. It was time to go home.